Pseudo-mom

A lot has happened in the past month and a half.
Father's Day weekend we got a surprise visit from my 3 older siblings. My oldest sister flew out (with her 5 month old daughter) from Illinois! My younger siblings, my dad, and I had never seen the baby before, so it was an awesome weekend (even though I was kicked out of my room to accommodate my siblings). My brother came with his wife (who I found out is pregnant, the baby is due Dec 22nd, so the day after I get back from Jordan) and daughter from Spokane. And my other sister came with her husband from Rexburg, ID. It was the first time all of us kids were together in almost 2 years.

I have spent the past 1.5 weeks playing 'mom'. Yeah, I seriously have. My mother flew out to Illinois to help my sister. My sister's youngest (the 5-month old) was in the hospital and her 3 other kids got sick and her husband is in CA working. Talk about being overwhelmed, so what else could my mom do? Her daughter needed her help and her grandbabies were sick, so she left me in charge of my 3 younger siblings and went where she was needed. My dad is gone most of the day, so it really was just me and the kids. The "kids" are twin, 14-yr old boys and an 11-going-on-27-yr old sister. Doesn't seem to bad right? Well, pretty much I'm their chauffeur and have to run interference and make sure they don't kill or maim each other. Did I mention that all 3 of them are the same size as me? It was a lot easier to watch them 5 years ago, when they were significantly smaller.
Anyway, things really haven't been so bad. We've gotten along pretty well. Just some problems with name-calling. One kid had to go to the doctor, so I had to set up and take him to an appointment and then get a prescription filled (that was a scary/unnerving experience). We've even gone to the movies and went out to the library and had a picnic. My sister is on a swim team, so I've had to drive her to her practices at 8:15am, and go to a couple of her meets (one was at 7:30am on a SATURDAY).
Really, things could've been a lot worse, but I definitely will be feeling relief when mom comes home tomorrow.   

Summer in Kennewick

I've been back in K-Town for almost 2 months....as wonderful as it is, I'm starting to get antsy. I haven't been able to find a job and am just trying to keep myself busy, which is easier said than done. My three younger siblings have gotten out of school for the summer, so we'll see how things turn out.....my mom and I are trying to come up with ways to preserve our sanity (personally, I don't know how we'll survive). One of my brothers is already saying 'I can't wait until you leave'. I act like it doesn't bug me, but honestly, every time he says that it hurts, it hurts a lot.

Had I stayed in Provo, I would've had a job and I would've been with my friends. It makes me a little frustrated when I think about that. However, there is one good thing that has come from me not finding a job. I have been fortunate enough to be able to visit family I haven't seen in several years. I went to Kent, WA to see one of my cousins perform in one of the lead roles of 'Little Shop of Horrors", she's now graduated and is in the Army ROTC at University of Portland. I'm so proud of her, I don't think I ever told her that, but I really am. We used to be really close, but (courtesy of my stupidity) we grew apart.

I also got to go down to Salem, OR for a weekend and spent it with my Yaya and Pappy. I haven't seen them since my freshman year of college, and I don't know when I'll get to see them again. Yaya's health is deteriorating and anytime I get to spend with her and Pappy is special. I really want them to be there when I get married, but since that isn't going to be anytime in the near future, there's a good chance that they won't be. Anyway, we went to Lincoln City, a town on the Oregon Coast, and went out to the ocean. Pappy loves the ocean, he served in the Coast Guard for 21.5 years. Yaya wasn't feeling good and stayed in the car, but Pappy and I went out and just watched the ocean for a little while. We didn't really talk, but that time watching the ocean, meant just as much if not more than spending an hour talking with Pappy. It was stormy that day, and I loved just watching the water, I can't even explain it, but I was just staring, completely mesmerized by the awesome power of the water. It was so powerful, but a bit frightening. I've decided I want to live near the water, not on the coast, but maybe an hour or two away.

I really am glad to be home, seriously I am. It just is a hard transition, one I don't really like. But, as hard and painful as its been, there has been some good, and that is what I need to focus on.

Sophmore Year....it's coming to an end

The past 8 months have seriously been crazy! And now it's coming to a peak, then will crash after April 16th. Yup, the end of my sophmore year at college is almost over. Finals start April 14th, and I'm going to be done with them by the 16th. Am I scared? Heck Yes! There's so many things I wanted to do, but I didn't get done. It is a little frustrating, but, oh well.
First day of stress before finals: April 10th- I've got my speaking interview with Dr. Khaled, from the Qasid Institute, where I will be studying this fall (did I mention that it's in Amman, Jordan?) He will give a recommendation to Dil (the program director), as to which classes I should take. Pretty much, I'm trying not to think about it that much, since I'll just freak myself out. Every other major speaking interview I've had, I've frozen up on, my mind has gone completely blank, and I'm nervous that this time won't be any different.
Second day of Stress: April 14th, I'm going to take one of my finals, and turn in another one. I know I shouldn't be worried, but I am.
Peak of Stress: April 16th- My two hardest finals are on the same day, with an hour in between them. My Modern Middle East History final is from 7-10am, then Arabic 202 is from 11-2, but, after that I'll be done with finals. I'll just be packing, working, and taking stuff to a storage unit. April 21st is when I'm going back to Kennewick. I haven't lived there in almost 2 years. It is kind of surreal to think about moving back there.

Living out here on my own has been great. I love it at school, I love my friends here, I even love my classes (though I may curse them at times), but, it's time to go home. It's time to go back to K-Town and spend time with my family before I leave on my biggest and greatest adventure yet.....Amman, Jordan. When I come back, things are going to be different, I'm going to be different, so I'm going to enjoy the time I have left (until I leave) with my family.

For now, I'm finishing finals, then, I'll be saying 'goodbye' for at least 8 months to some of my best friends, and then, I'll on the road, heading home.

School.....it's starting again

Fall semester started on August 29th, and things started out okay….but by the time I got home, it had turned into a pretty awful day.
I was supposed to have a meeting with my new boss at 7:45am, so I got up early and went in for the meeting. It turned out that the meeting also was with two of the student supervisors, who got there a little after I did. We were waiting for my boss, and finally went to find out where he was from his secretary. When my boss came a few minutes later he told us that he wanted to reschedule, and that he thought we’d heard that he wanted to do that (obviously we hadn’t)…..so it was now a little after 8am and I had an hour to kill before my first class (Arabic 201).
Arabic 201 is a little confusing. I have it at 9-9:50am on MWF and 3-3:50 TTH (in two different rooms). On my class schedule I read where the class was for TTH…not MWF, so it took me 15-20 minutes to figure out where my class was. Class itself went well. I found out that several of my friends are in the same class, so I know we’ll have fun and help each other out (since I know that I will need it). My other class on Monday was “England/Wales Family History After 1700”….I thought it was going to be a piece of cake….I was so wrong. There is supposed to be this big research project and a bunch of little assignments. I knew that there was no way I would have the kind of time needed to do well in that class (it also is an upper level history class, which explains why it’s so much work)…..so I switched into an Intro to Archaeology class, it’s a 100-level class, and shouldn’t be as demanding.
On MWF I have work from 1:15-5pm, and work started out great. There was a rush, but it was fine. Then I got burned…..again. I had put a sandwhich on the grill and was still holding the pan (with a towel, since it was hot) and I was adjusting my grip so my fingers wouldn’t get burned when the pan flipped up and hit me across the face…..I now have a burn on my left cheek running to just above the corner of my mouth. Then, a few hours later I went to grab a bowl and it slipped from my hand, when it fell it hit a bunch of other bowls, and they all fell to the ground…..4 or 5 bowls were broken. I ended up staying an extra hour, because I was waiting for the supervisor, Dana, to get there and train new people. While waiting, we got 10 orders for pizza station (2 small pizzas, 1 large pizza, 6 pastas, 1 San Fran), and we had 2 new people who had no clue what to do. I was the most experienced person working, so I took the new people and started teaching them how to make a San Francisco Melt and Pastas. There were a couple pizzas that were ordered, that I had to take care of, but I was trying to help the new people at the same time…..the pastas and San Fran’s were ordered before the pizzas, so I did those first, I do orders chronologically, I don’t pick and choose which ones I do when. So it took about 12 minutes to get the small pizzas out and 16 to get the large out….and I got in trouble with my Boss because it took over 10 minutes (well, it takes 10 minutes for the large pizza to cook alone)…considering that I had two newbies, and had gotten all these orders within minutes, it was pretty good time.
So by the time I got home, I was exhausted, hurting, and just wanted to do absolutely nothing. It was a great first day……Second day was lots better. All my classes are for my major, and I really am enjoying them all.

The Joys and Pains of Growing-up

A year has come and gone and I'm now a sophomore at BYU....and I finally broke down and started a blog.

Things have changed, I have changed so much over the past year it is crazy.  I swear time flows differently here at college, so much happens so fast it feels like it's been a long time when it really hasn't. I met my roommate, Brittany, four months ago, and she is one of my best friends. People think we've known each other for years when it's only been a few months.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. A brief recap of my first two semesters. I lived in an apartment with 5 girls, and it was a lot of fun. My classes were awesome and I made some really good friends in them. I'm a Middle East Studies/Arabic major and I love it. Survived a full year of Arabic, and it really has become an integral part of who I am.

Winter semester I got a job working at a restaurant on campus, The Legends Grille, and I have had a blast there. I met two of my best friends, Danny and Jared, there and have made a lot of other good friends. I'm learning to do everything there. I started out as Cashier then learned how to do Pizzas and pasta, then I learned how to do the salads and sandwiches, now I'm learning how to do the grill and all the other little things.

Brittany, Lizzie, and I with 144 cookies we decorated

I stayed for Spring and Summer terms and they just flew by. I moved into a 3-person apartment and I just clicked with Brittany and Lizzie (my new roommates), we've had so much fun it is ridiculous. But, I still got good grades, so it's alright. God knew what he was doing when he put us together as roommates. We went through a lot, and I know that I would not have been able to do so well if I hadn't had Brittany and Lizzie to struggle through things with.

With the end of Spring and Summer terms came a lot of 'good-byes' that I didn't want to have to say. Several of my friends were leaving on missions and have either checked into or are checking into the MTC within the next few months.

Jared and I before he left

 The hardest good-bye I've had to say was to my friend Jared. He checked into the MTC to dedicate the next two years of his life to serving the Lord as a missionary in the Copenhagen, Denmark mission on August 10th. I'm so glad that he's on his mission and excited for him and I know that he's doing what the Lord wants him to right now, but that still doesn't stop me from missing him and all the time we used to spend talking and whatnot. When he went home after winter semester, I didn't get to say good-bye to him, and I thought I wasn't going to see him again until after his mission, but then he and his family came out to Utah for a week and he spent a couple days in Provo. So he came to class with me, we went to see a movie (Captain America), then had homemade pizza and hung out until curfew. It was great getting to see him and actually getting to say good-bye, as sad and hard as it was, the closure was nice.

Aside from fun adventures with friends I have been able to spend time with my relatives out here in Utah. I went out to Vernal, Utah for my cousin Cadin's farewell and saw him and some other cousins. My cousin Austyn, got married and there was a family dinner in American Fork (about 20-30 minutes from Provo), and I was able to go to that. I actually brought my friend Danny and his roommate Benjamin too, and so they met a bunch of cousins, aunts, uncles, my grandparents, and great-uncle and great-aunt. They all liked Danny and Ben, so it was all good. There was some talk/gossip and speculation about me and my friend Danny, but I set everyone straight, we're really close friends, emphasis on FRIENDS.

I had my first birthday away from home, and it turned out really well. It got off to a rough start, but ended on a good note. My roommates surprised me with dinner, and I got a package of little gifts from my younger siblings in the mail. I also got a call at 7:15 from my sister, and was sung Happy Birthday by her, my brother-in-law, and three kids. They lived in Washington, so it was 6:15am for them when they called, talk about crazy. But the best gift I got was from my parents. On July 2nd, there was a concert/program called The Stadium of Fire and this year Brad Paisley and David Archuletta were performing, so my parents got tickets to go see it. Then they found out that my mom's family reunion was the same weekend, so she chose not to go, and I got to go instead. It was so much fun, I got to spend time, just me and my dad, which meant more to me than the actual concert itself. We went to see Transformers 3, which was pretty good, before we went to the concert. And then it turned out that my brother and sister-in-law had seats two rows below where my dad and I were, so I got to see and talk to them a little too.

Then I actually was able to go with my dad out to Vernal for the reunion (I got to spend one day with everyone). I got to see my aunts and uncles and lots of my cousins (on my mom's side).....and I got to see my parents and younger siblings for the first time in awhile.

After I finished finals for Summer term, I spent the whole 2 1/2 week break working, nonstop. For 3 weeks, our football team was having their training camp thing, and the resturant where I work, was in charge of feeding them all three meals for the whole three weeks. In addition, the resturant itself was open at the same time, and there was "Education Week" going on as well. Needless to say, it was a busy three weeks, that kept us on our toes. I actually am getting a new boss and we've been trying to transition to him being the boss while all this is going on as well. Hopefully, things will transition smoothly, and not put too much stress on us workers.

Classes start tomorrow, and I'm having mixed feelings. While I'm excited for classes to start, I'm nervous for how they are going to go, and how I'm going to balance them, homework, work, and friends. I'm mainly taking classes for my major this semester, and probably the next one as well. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my last few GEs done in the next couple Spring.Summer terms so I can take my Major classes Fall/Winter. I'm taking: Arabic 201, Introduction to the Humanities of Islam, History of the Middle East to 1400, The Qur'an, and England/Wales family History after 1700 (this is my "fun" class). But I know that I have friends in 3 of my classes, so it's going to be great. Busy, a little stressful, and hectic, but great.

To keep my sanity, I"ve discovered Ultimate Frisbee, and Darktimate Frisbee. I primarily play Darktimate, but have played regular Ultimate as well. It is a pretty big thing here on campus. Darktimate Frisbee is Ultimate Frisbee....in the dark. We use a light-up frisbee and the players wear a certain color of glowsticks based on which team they are on. It is so much fun, and gets really intense. One time, the sprinklers came on in the middle of the field, and we kept playing, we all were soaked afterwords, but it was worth it. A group used to get together a couple times a week to play, but now with school starting they're going to play every friday (and will play more games during the week if they can).

I truly love it here, even with all the frustrations that happen, there's been so many wonderful things that've happened to balance them out. I know that this is where I'm supposed to be, I don't know why, but I just know that I do need to be here. It's already been great, I can't wait for it to get even better.